One Fine Winter
by Cptn. Suz
Summary: The mysterious appearance of a girl in Janus' biological lab forces Weir to come to terms with an unresolved issue in her past. Mild spoilers for 'Before I Sleep', very angsty, more info inside... On indefinite hiatus.


Disclaimer: I make no claims of ownership on Stargate Atlantis or its characters. No infringements intended.

Title: One Fine Winter

Author: CptnSuz

Summary: The mysterious appearance of a girl in Janus' biological lab forces Weir to come to terms with an unresolved issue in her past.

Rating: K+, may go up depending on how disturbing the issues become

More: Minimal spoilers for 'Before I Sleep'; I foresee this becoming a very angsty piece; also may turn into McWeir pre-ship.

* * *

"Just hold it a few more seconds"  
Elizabeth Weir glared at her chief scientist. He wasn't one to typically try and make her look ridiculous... Still she didn't have the ATA gene so maybe it won't work.  
She let out an involuntary yelp as the palm that was holding the Ancient device received a nice jolt of static electricity.  
"Don't drop it!" Rodney shouted, his hands move reflectively beneath her's in case he needed to catch it. No such save was necessary though. Elizabeth continued to hold the large, egg-shaped mass of metallic and crystalline technology and got the desired effect. A small hologram appeared hovering over the device, projecting a physiological map of her body along with small annotations in Ancient. "See, this one is blood pressure," Rodney began excited explaining the annotations, "these what I think are electrolyte levels. Here is your weight"  
Elizabeth deftly slid the egg-thingy from her palm and back into the cradle Rodney had plucked it from earlier. "Have you shown it to Dr. Beckett yet"  
"No, I was saving it for his Christmas present." She didn't bite, so he let the sarcasm slide and went on, "I was just going to track him down before dinner"  
She had time to reply with a "good" before another scientist rushed in. The German woman waved a computer tablet and jesticulated wildly, emphasizing with words like "broken", "disabled", and "not good." Elizabeth made a timely and prompt retreat back to her office. She shared Rodney's interest in understanding the rest of Janus' lab, but it was probably distracting him from other more pressing issues. And deep inside she had a feeling that while the mysteries of the lab were not malicious, they certainly would cause barrel-loads of grief. It had been true enough when they found an aged, alternate version of herself.

* * *

True to habit, once Rodney was pulled away from Janus' lab by "pressing concerns about the environmental systems," he forgot all about the project for a time. He threw himself into fixing whatever was deemed broken. Pausing only once for the hallowed dinner break, he worked on, finally throwing himself into bed in the wee hours of the morning.  
At what Rodney deemed a saner hour, he dragged himself from bed and, accompanied by his laptop, went to breakfast. Now with a satisfyingly full tray of food before him, he returned to his dogged translation of Janus' laboratory notes. Rodney gobbled, ate and swallowed, marking the occasional passage of difficult syntax. He was a genius to be sure, but nowhere near as fast as Dr. Weir in the realm of perusing Ancient treastises. At some point he'd ask for her suggested clarifications on those bits. And then as Rodney moved onto his oatmeal, something in the reading made him pause. He had reached another section about the diagnostic-egg he'd been playing with yesterday. The oatmeal quickly became abandoned on the tray as he tried to focus and read faster. "Oh, this is not good... not good," he muttered to himself.  
However it was reading the phrase, 'I have succeeded in reducing the growth period to overnight,' that caused Rodney to drop his spoon, swoop up his computer and fly out of the dining hall.  
When he burst through the door to Janus' lab though, the statistical dread he'd been carrying collapsed like a weight onto his chest. Dr. Zelenka must have arrived only moments before. He looked up at Rodney, the obvious questions and accusations unvoiced but present in his eyes. And next to the crouching Czech, wrapped in his uniform jacket, wet, and unconscious, was a youngish girl.

* * *

"What did you do this time, Rodney?" John Sheppard gave the scientist a disparaging look as the senior staff gathered in the entryway of the infirmary waiting for Carson to finish his examination of the girl. "Look, I didn't know it was going to do this!" Rodney looked about ready to beat his head in with his laptop. This mistake was really eating at him.  
"Do what?" Elizabeth asked as she stepped through the doorway. "Aye, Rodney. I'd like to know as well." Carson sidled up to join the group.  
"It's not my fault"  
"No one is implying that," Teyla replied, "We would simply like an explanation"  
Rodney looked uncomfortable, leaning back against the wall and hugging his computer to his chest. He stared down at the floor for a moment. "Okay, fine. It turns out the diagnostic device I was studying yesterday does more than just biometrics. Janus was using it as some kind of buffer for a cloning chamber"  
"Wait, w'know the Ancients played with genetics, but I didn't think they actually cloned people." Carson cut in. "I was getting to that," Rodney retorted. "According to Janus' notes the rest of the Lanteans weren't too thrilled with this project either. What he was trying to do was bring over memories along with DNA, so that the new person would have the same memories as both of his or her progenitors, sort of like backing up files to another harddrive"  
"That's another person," John snorted.  
"I know, incorporating memories was tricky, and there's a lot of Janus' material that I still need to read, but he seemed to think it was a viable solution to constructing and growing the body at an accelerated rate. That way you wouldn't have to teach them all over again"  
"Then how come the lass can talk but not remember anything you or Dr. Weir know about Atlantis?" Carson inquired.  
"I. Don't. Know," Rodney shot back, "Maybe it has something to do with how Radek extracted her. Like I said, I still have a lot to read"  
"Hold on, you or Dr. Weir? So you're saying she's not a straight-up clone? That's she's like you guys' daughter?" John spoke up. Everyone turned to look across the room at the now-conscious girl who sat swinging her legs on the edge of the bed. One of the nurses had cut her mousey-brown hair, and stick-thin arms and legs emerged from the medical gown that was otherwise swallowing her up. "She certainly has Elizabeth's figure and Rodney's stunning good looks"  
"Hey"  
"Aye," Carson chimed in, "Along with her mum's lack of appetite and her da's crazy metabolism. Course I'd like to run some more tests on her, but I'd say she's around fourteen years old, and"  
"Alright. Carson, go ahead and run your tests. I want to see both you and Rodney in my office when you're done. But I don't want anyone saying that I'm her mother, even to her. She's not my daughter!" Elizabeth turned quickly and left. Everyone was agape for a moment or two. "She's going to kill me," Rodney stated, sinking along the wall to the floor.

* * *

AN: I really wasn't planning on posting this until my brother beta'ed it and told me that I should. So this is the first instance when I truely would like feedback. Pleading and putting the story on your alerts are always good motivation for writing more chapters. 

P.S. And a BIG thanks to my brother for beta'ing and coming up with that zippy summary!


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